---
title: Hebrews 11:17
url: https://jw-apologetics.app/verses/hebrews-11-17/
markdown: https://jw-apologetics.app/verses/hebrews-11-17.md
type: verse
perspective: Protestant (historic Nicene) response to Jehovah's Witness teaching
reference: Hebrews 11:17
testament: NT
section: Letters
index: https://jw-apologetics.app/llms.txt
---

# Hebrews 11:17

## Text (Berean Standard Bible)

> By faith Abraham, when he was tested, offered up Isaac on the altar. He who had received the promises was ready to offer his one and only son,

## JW Usage

The Watchtower reads Hebrews 11:17 as a narrative about Abraham's faith in offering Isaac and takes "only-begotten son" (monogenes) in its lexically literal sense — the one Abraham begot uniquely from Sarah. The JW use of monogenes is calibrated to John 3:16, where "only-begotten Son" is read as evidence that Jesus was produced or brought forth by Jehovah at a point in time.

## Protestant Usage

Hebrews 11:17 is the decisive counter-text for the JW reading of monogenes. Isaac was not Abraham's "only begotten" in the literal birth-sense — Abraham had Ishmael, fourteen years earlier, through Hagar. Yet Hebrews calls Isaac the monogenes. The word does not mean "only one begotten" in the sense of singular procreation; it means "unique, one of a kind" — the son of promise, not of slave- wife arrangement. This is the same word applied to Jesus at John 3:16 and John 1:18 (monogenes theos — "unique God"). The doorstep move: "Read Hebrews 11:17 in your own NWT. Did Abraham have other sons? How can Isaac be the 'only-begotten' unless the word means 'unique'?" The monogenes argument stands or falls on a single verse in Hebrews — and it stands.

## Arguments Using This Verse

- [Monogenes — 'Only Begotten' Means Unique](https://jw-apologetics.app/arguments/john3-16-monogenes.md) — John 3:16 [Deity of Christ]
- [When 'Is' Becomes 'Means'](https://jw-apologetics.app/arguments/is-to-means-broader-pattern.md) — The NWT's Pattern of Paraphrasing the Greek Copula [NWT Translation]
- [The Prologue Has Two Bookends — Read John 1:18 Before You Argue About John 1:1](https://jw-apologetics.app/arguments/john1-1-and-1-18-inclusio.md) — John 1:1 and 1:18 — the opening and closing of John's prologue say the same three things [Deity of Christ]
- [Always the Father, Always a Son](https://jw-apologetics.app/arguments/eternal-father-eternal-son.md) — Malachi 3:6 / John 17:24 — if Jehovah never changes and has always been Father, he has always had a Son [Deity of Christ]